Author Archives: Trevor Abrahmsohn

The commons should be the servants of the people. Not the other way around

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In 1674, the governors of London’s infamous Bedlam mental hospital stated that the venue couldn’t cope with the lunatics therein. Three hundred and forty-five years later, today’s Commons demonstrated a similar spectacle.

After a tortuous referendum process, with eight weeks of a head banging Project Fear campaign, before the largest, democratic vote in UK history, 17.4million people decided to leave the EU, representing 51.9 % of the electoral vote. They didn’t know or want to know, the intricate details of how to implement the decision that they had reached after much soul searching, they left that to the government to organise on their behalf, in the most effective way possible.
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Make sure you’ve done your homework Theresa

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Theresa, if you are going to ambush the Commons with your deal, make sure you’ve done your homework first since it’s four strikes and you’re out!

Regular viewers of this blog will gather that in my opinion, Mrs. May should be awarded for her unswerving persistence (or brute obstinacy) in trying to get this Brexit deal through, a feat which resembles a game of Twister combined with three-dimensional tug of war. With all the disparate groups harbouring their own interests, it’s no wonder that May hasn’t asked for the P45 and taken up embroidery. It must be like having five mothers-in-law (heaven forbid) in the car, each with a steering wheel, constantly quarrelling about which direction to take.

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Don’t just do something Mr. Hammond, sit there!

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Ah, the joys of Spring. Hosts of waving daffodils, cheery birdsong – and a mini Budget update. If the country is to emerge from its collective wintry torpor then Mr. Hammond has to grow up, be a man and cut the Stamp Duty monster down to size. The problem stems from the clumsy ‘revision’ of the Stamp Duty escalator. Not only does it bend the Residential Property Market out of shape, but it is now costing the Treasury a £1billion per annum or more to sustain.

Like many government ‘ideas’, it reeks of incompetence and failure (thank you, George Osborne for this legacy). Prospective purchasers above a £1million, i.e. mostly in London, are being hit by a slew of aggravated tax costs. Not surprisingly, transaction numbers have been curtailed by 70% and any liquidity in the market has turned to stodge. This tax is perfectly collectable, but easily avoided – as long as you don’t do anything so ridiculous as move house.
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